Oct. 26—PEMBINA, N.D. — Four months after Pembina's daycare owner decided not to renew their lease, leaving the town of 500 without child care options, the city is hanging up hopes of replacing them before winter.

Sherri Carattini, the city auditor, said it's impacted business in town with no one to take care of children during the day.

"We have businesses that are hurting for employees because there's no place for them to put their kids if they have to go to work," she said. "It's a big domino effect."

Pembina's daycare closed in May when the previous director chose not to renew the lease, according to the Pembina City Council's meeting minutes. The daycare's closure was swiftly followed by ads in both newspapers and social media, but the search has so far been unsuccessful — the small number of possible applicants who showed some interest ultimately didn't follow through with concrete plans to sign a lease.

Pembina isn't the only city facing issues with child care availability.

In September 2022, Gov. Doug Burgum said

families "have to make a choice to work and pay for child care or not work at all," noting the "tens of thousands" of people in North Dakota not working in order to take care of their children. Child care centers aren't abundant enough or staffed enough to accept everyone.

"Working families are experiencing a child care crisis," he said. "There are more children than there are slots."

In Pembina, the city, which owns the building the previous daycare was housed in, hopes to entice child care providers with a year of free rent, free utilities, free snow removal and free mowing to help the future business get started to focus on taking care of the children and making a profit.

While the building remains empty, Carattini said families have taken their children to nearby towns like Cavalier, Drayton and Hallock for daycare services. She's heard a few have even driven into Canada.

"Wherever they can find somebody," she said. "It's really a shame ... It's a mess for people with kids."

The city council decided to stop advertising in the newspaper as it started to become expensive, and are going to try again in the spring. If someone doesn't step forward to sign a lease, the city is considering selling the building.

"We want to get people to come into town and live here and work here," Carattini said. "But if there's no daycare, people aren't going to want to come."